


I'm Just a Girl, Standing in Front of a Boy

by Spazzo47



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M, Fan Fiction challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 03:44:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17890865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spazzo47/pseuds/Spazzo47
Summary: Set in season 1, Don and Maggie and Will and Mackenzie have to sort through their relationship issues.For Lilac Mermaid's Fan Fiction Challenge 2015 "Let's Get Married".  The challenge was to start with that statement, but it couldn't be said by Will or Mac during the Kundu story.





	I'm Just a Girl, Standing in Front of a Boy

**Author's Note:**

> For the last month or so my computer has been facing "Jumpy Cursor Syndrome". I haven't fixed it yet, but I decided to spend this evening testing a work around that no one on Google gave me. In fear of jinxing the results, I will not tell you how the test is going so far. So this is a quick write where I didn't have a plan.

“Let’s get married.”

Maggie gave Don a stink eye at the suggestion.  “Is this about Jim again?  I told you, there is nothing between us.  We’re friends, that’s all we’ll ever be.”

Don looked at her.  He wasn’t serious. In fact the idea made him feel a little dizzy.  He sure liked Maggie a lot and he felt responsible for her, but marriage just seemed so, so… permanent.  However he’s watched her with Jim and he doesn't like what he sees.  Maggie is a little naïve, so maybe she doesn’t see it, but Jim would be on her like white on rice if Don didn’t keep subtlety reminding Jim who is with Maggie. 

“So you don’t want to get married.  And you don’t want to date anyone else.  What do you want?”

Maggie laughed, or at least tried to so she could hide how much she wanted to cry… or punch him in the nuts.  “Are those the only two choices?  We either get married or we break up?  You don’t even want me to move in here!  You don’t want to get married, you just want to make me feel bad.”

“Oh here we go again.  Time for Maggie’s attempt at pop psychology.  You know what?  Go date whoever you want.”

“I don’t want to date anyone else.  Why is that so hard for you to believe?”

Don started to answer the question, but then he thought about what she asked and he stopped.  Maybe she was right, maybe she was right, maybe… no, it’s her.  It’s her and Jim.  Jim may be more suited to her, but she’s with him and she is the type of person that he can bring to corporate events or introduce to his parents.  Not that he’s using her, he likes her well enough, and if he wanted to settle down, he would really consider her.  It’s just that he doesn’t want that.  Right now.  Someday, someday he can see himself running the news division and having a wife and maybe a couple kids and when that happens, if Maggie’s around, then… who knows?  But right now he’s an executive producer with the potential to move up.  He’s not where he needs to be to even consider something long term yet. 

“Because I see you with him.  Can you honestly look at me and tell me that you don’t have any interest in him at all?”

Maggie can’t believe the words coming out of his mouth.  Okay, maybe she has a slight, little, tiny, minuscule crush on Jim.  But he hasn’t shown any signs that he likes her back.  And even if he did, she’s with Don and she wouldn’t ever cheat.  Don is the most exciting person she’s ever been with, which may say something about her dating life to this point, but there’s something about him.  Everyone she’s dated have been high school or college students.  Don is a real man, and he’s going places.  Who wouldn’t want to be around that?  And best of all, he chose her.  He could have anyone he wanted, but he chose her.  Of course she wants to be with him.  Even when he treats her worse than Will treats Mackenzie. 

“I don’t want Jim.  And even if I did, I wouldn’t ever act on it in a million years.”

“You mean he wouldn’t.” 

At this, Maggie couldn’t stop the tears from falling.  She tried to think of what Mac does when Will does something so assholic that everyone knows she wants to cry, but Maggie had to realize that she’s not Mac and her fairy Macmother isn't going to appear out of thin air to turn her into someone so put together that this wouldn't even phase her. 

Don looked at Maggie losing the fight to stop from crying.  “Ok, you know what, I’m going to go home now.  I don’t need this.”

Don huffed out of Maggie’s apartment, slamming the door behind him.  Maggie finally gave way fully to her cries.  As she curled into herself, she heard a door open.  She looked alarmed at the front door that Don just left and seeing he hadn’t come back, either to apologize or to catch her at such a vulnerable moment, she looked around the apartment and saw Lisa had come out of her room and started walking to the kitchen. 

“I know you don’t want to hear me say this, but he’s a jerk.”

Maggie got tired of having the same conversations all the time.  She had to convince Don that there’s nothing between her and Jim.  She has to tell Lisa that Don’s not the jerk she keeps imagining. 

“And before you tell me that I just don’t know him the way you do, I want you to remember that any man who makes his girlfriend cry and then walks out is an asshole.”

“He’s not, I’m just being sensitive.  I won’t promise to stay away from Jim and –”

“And he shouldn’t decide who you spend your time with.”  Lisa finished collecting the carton of ice cream, chocolate sauce, whipped cream and two spoons.  When she got to the couch, she tapped on Maggie’s legs.  “Come on, there’s only one way to deal with a dick like him.”  Lisa made herself comfortable and took the remote control and turned on Netflix. 

As _Notting Hill_ began, Maggie asked, “Why do we watch rom coms when we’re heartbroken?”

“I don’t know, maybe because it gives us hope that one day we’ll find the right guy.”

~~~~~~~

Mackenzie sat on her couch with her carton of ice cream.  She looked at the cavernous shape when her spoon scraped the bottom and didn’t find any dairy goodness.  “I’m going to regret that in the morning.”  She started feeling a little bloated and wondered if that was optimistic.

At least it was Friday.  Yes, it's likely that she will get a phone call from the anchor who doth protests too much sometime this weekend, but at least those don’t last for 8 hours or more.  She can at least pretend that she has a life and that she didn’t just come back to New York to chase the dream of reuniting with a man who will never forgive her.  She looked in her ice cream carton again.  They must not have filled it all the way.  She looked at her phone, wondering if she should call Will.  He does it to her all the time.  He doesn’t even pretend to have a reason for calling most of the time.  She won’t of course.  Part of her wants to know what he’s doing, but the smarter part knows she doesn’t want to know.  Even if he is alone, he won’t give her a straight answer.  Maybe he’s just watching some sport somewhere.  She can live with that. But like everything else regarding Will, that's just a fantasy.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Will signaled the bar tender for another beer.  The Yankees were winning so the mood at the bar was jubilant.  He’d already benefited from someone buying a round for everyone.  He played darts, which is rare for him, but he was able to channel just enough of his high school pitching skills to throw straight and hit the target better than the slobbering drunk that challenged him.  Obviously he didn’t care if he won or lost, he added the 20 dollar bill to the collection he kept in his wallet to impress anyone that needed impressing. 

Despite what Mackenzie seemed to think, he wasn’t the man-ho that had to be with some young thing every night.  That’s what tonight was about, showing Mackenzie that he didn’t have to have a companion every night.  As the bartender served him, he realized the problem with his plan was that Mackenzie wasn’t here to see it.  He thought about calling her and inviting her to the bar to see him without a date, but then he realized that’s probably not something to brag about, especially to his ex-girlfriend. 

Ah, what the fuck is he doing here?  He looked at the game.  That wasn’t the score last time he checked.  They’ve played two and a half innings since the last time he was even interested in this game.  He wanted to call it a night, but if he did, he’d just go home and then what?  Go to bed?  He hasn’t been sleeping well for… who knows how long.  At least when someone’s there, he doesn’t feel so fucking alone.  A voice in his head wanted to make the obvious smart ass comment, but it was shut down by another voice, the voice he attributes to her.  It even sometimes fucking sounds like her.  Not just the words, a fucking voice in his head has taken on the sound of her voice, the way and the places her voice would lilt.  And having that in his head... that’s even worse than being alone. 

He could pick up someone from this bar.  He could.  It wouldn’t be hard, but he just isn’t interested.  He’ll finish watching the game.  And then he’ll go home and sit on his deck with a cigarette and play some classic rock.  And then tomorrow he’ll wake up and find some way to spend the next 24 hours. 


End file.
